Family Group:

A Great War ‘Battle of Cambrai’ M.C. group of three awarded to Captain H. R. Malet, Royal Garrison Artillery, who was accidentally killed when shot at point blank range by a Colt automatic pistol fired by a fellow officer at the Royal Barracks in Dublin on 10 March 1922
Military Cross, G.V.R., the reverse contemporarily engraved ‘H. R. Malet, R.G.A. Cambrai. Nov-Dec. 1917.’; British War and Victory Medals (Capt. H. R. Malet) mounted for display in a glazed frame with two plaques that read ‘Capt. H. R. Malet, M.C. R.G.A.’ and ‘Cambrai. Nov.-Dec. 1917.’, extremely fine

Three: Lieutenant F. L. Malet, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, attached 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, who was killed in action at Gallipoli on 4 June 1915
1914-15 Star (Lieut. F. L. Malet. R. War. R.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. F. L. Malet.) mounted for display in a glazed frame (the glazing broken) with a plaque that reads ‘Lieut. F. L. Malet, 12th. Batt. R. War. Regt.’, extremely fine (6) £700-£900

M.C. London Gazette 3 June 1918.

Henry Roger Malet was born in Wolverhampton in 1896, and was commissioned from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich into the Royal Garrison Artillery as a Second Lieutenant on 19 February 1916. He served with them during the Great War on the Western Front from 31 March 1916, and was promoted Lieutenant on 19 August 1917. He was awarded the Military Cross for his gallantry at Cambrai in late 1917, whilst holding the rank of Acting Captain, and following the cessation of hostilities served with 19 Medium Battery, V Medium Brigade, R.G.A. in Dublin.

Malet was accidentally killed when shot at point blank range by a Colt automatic pistol fired by a fellow officer at the Royal Barracks in Dublin on 10 March 1922; according to a contemporary newspaper article, ‘Lieutenant Malet was in the vehicle office of the 24th Brigade, Royal Barracks, awaiting the arrival of a motor car, when the conversation turned to the different types of revolvers and pistols that the assembled officers were examining. Lieutenant Malet had a revolver and a pistol in his had. The pistol belonged to Lieutenant Caple, who also had a Colt automatic pistol in the left pocket of his tunic. Lieutenant Capel took the pistol out of his pocket with his left hand, apparently with the object of showing how quickly he could do it, when it went off, and Lieutenant Malet, who was facing him, fell to the floor. All the officers were chatting at the time, and the occurrence was purely accidental. Upon examination, it was afterwards found that the spring from the pistol was defective.’

Frank Louis Malet, elder brother of the above, was born in Wolverhampton in 1893, and was educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School, and Worcester College, Oxford. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 12th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment on 4 November 1914, and served during the Great War attached to the 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, in Gallipoli. He was killed in action at Gallipoli on 4 June 1915; he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Turkey.